Fire tore through a building at the Huntington Apartments late Thursday afternoon, rendering a section of the complex a charred mess and leaving 20 people without a place to live.

The fire started around 4 p.m. in Building G, investigators said.

David Cothran, assistant chief of Centerville fire station, said that the roof of the building was already taken by flames when firefighters arrived just moments later. He said the cause of the fire remains under investigation, but firefighters had been told there was work going on in an attic space of that building and the fire may have started there.

Allen Moyer, 76, who is disabled, has lived in Building G for four years. He was helped out of his ground-floor apartment by neighbors.

"I was watching TV and someone knocked on the door and said the place was on fire," he said.

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Neighbors also rescued his 3-year-old Chihuahua, Joy. His wheelchair was left behind.

Moyer sat in a chair outside his charred building, holding the dog in his lap, as a volunteer from the American Red Cross tried to make arrangements for him for the night.

No one was injured in the fire.

Firefighters from Centerville, Homeland Park, Center Rock, and Hopewell fire stations fought the blaze. They were still dousing some hot spots as of 5:30 p.m.

Charline Austin lives in a separate building across from building G.

"The fire spread really fast," she said. "At first, there was just a little flame on the roof and then, whoosh, all of a sudden it got big and was running across the whole roof. I think the wind got in it, too. I'm just glad everybody got out OK."